McQueen’s Savage Beauty already a hot ticket

10 октября 2014

Alexander McQueen in 1997

Sixteen-thousand tickets have already been bought for . The fashion exhibition about the maverick but compelling British designer runs from March 14 to July 19 at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

At a press conference at the V&A, creations on display included McQueen’s weird and wonderful platform boots and digitally printed dresses he made for the 2010 Plato’s Atlantis show. Martin Roth, the museum’s director, discussed how this show would follow or deviate from the exhibition staged at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

That previous event was held shortly after the suicide of McQueen in February 2010, at the age 40. The same team of Sam Gainsbury and Anna Whiting will redesign the exhibition for the V&A, including a room arranged like a “cabinet of curiosities”.

“Lee and I often came here to the museum to look through the archives, and I remember when we found a Victorian wedding dress made of Beatle wings,” said Sarah Burton, referring to the name by which she knew Lee Alexander McQueen when she was his assistant. She ultimately took over the house as creative director and famously made the Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding dress.

Other McQueen pieces on display included a printed jacket from the 1997 It’s a Jungle Out There show, and a sparkling crystal “bell jar” dress from 2009.

“I came in here and I thought I was going to cry,” said Sarah Burton, saying that the exhibition would be enhanced by the designer’s early works in London.

“I am happier about it being here than anywhere else in the world,” said Sarah. “The exhibition touched so many people in New York. Now it’s coming home.”

Shalom Harlow in spray-painted dress No. 13, spring summer 1999

Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, in partnership with Swarovski, supported by American Express and made possible with the co-operation of Alexander McQueen, runs from 14 March – 19 July 2015. Vam.ac.uk/savagebeauty